


he was shady enough (but now he’s just a shadow)

by staystreetfriend



Category: Charmed (TV)
Genre: Gen, changed future
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-08
Updated: 2018-06-08
Packaged: 2019-05-19 21:17:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,463
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14881365
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/staystreetfriend/pseuds/staystreetfriend
Summary: Ever since then, she looked for signs that her son knew more about his own past life than he had revealed.





	he was shady enough (but now he’s just a shadow)

**Author's Note:**

> This is just a little one-shot about Chris's life in the changed future. The title is from My Boy by Billie Eilish (it vaguely reminds me of adult Chris from the unchanged future because he was super shady and seemed to be very selective with who he trusted). If this looks familiar to you, it's because I originally published it in December. Since then, I've made changes and I think this version is way better! Oh, yeah, and I decided to take Melinda - Piper and Leo's only daughter - out of the picture for this, just because we don't really know much about her and I wanted to mainly focus on Chris's relationship with the characters we do know. I also don't own anything!!! Enjoy.

Ever since Chris was born, moments after he died, a fear of the unknown was rooted in the minds of those his old self came to know through his horribly-neurotic journey of trying to save his older brother from turning evil. What would happen to this Chris when he turned 23? Would he be anything like the Chris they knew? And, most importantly, would he remember what the "old Chris" - as they called him - had gone through?

Although the old Chris was a shady, manipulative liar, once Leo and the sisters found out he was _also_ a Halliwell, things changed. They began viewing the traits they previously thought of as annoying in a more positive light. His stubbornness and unwillingness to let anyone know what was going on in his head reminded Phoebe a lot of Prue. Paige thought that Chris's ability to coax people into doing what he wanted was one of Grams's most perfected skills. And Piper and Leo? Well, Chris was their son. Leo loved that, although he was great at holding grudges, Chris had a soft spot for family and finally decided to give his father a second chance. Piper loved that Chris had a soft spot for food, and he loved  _everything_  she made for him.

It became clear, as Chris aged, that he had a darkness inside of him. It was something his family would never be able to understand or explain, but it was always there. Phoebe, being an Empath, felt it the most. She felt it grow more and more prominent as _he_ grew. The darkness inside of Chris was a complete contrast for the sunshine that Wyatt was made of, and the two brothers balanced each other out so much that Piper wondered how they could be so close if they were so different.

Although the old Chris was cocky and full of witty remarks, this Chris was rather shy. Against Leo's better judgment, Piper decided against putting her sons through magic school, so she enrolled them in public school when they were both old enough to understand that using magic in front of others led to serious repercussions, both in the real world _and_ in the Halliwell Manor. Wyatt thrived; he joined the baseball team, he got decent grades, and he had a girlfriend as well as a few thousand friends on Facebook. Chris, on the other hand, loved learning, but school was just another place where he felt like he didn't belong. Wyatt acted as his bodyguard whenever kids thought it would be funny to mess with the teacher's pet - Chris was his little brother, after all - and although it scared the bullies away from him, it also scared  _everyone_ away from him. Chris ended up with two friends in school: Wyatt, and a lanky kid with a million-dollar smile named Seth.

Chris was practically glued to his mother on the day he turned fourteen. At one point, she asked him if he wanted to do anything to celebrate, and the reverberant "No!" he shouted was enough to make the hair on her arms stand up. Although he was never much of a crier, he looked like he was about to start sobbing in that moment, and when Piper tentatively asked what was wrong, he mumbled "nothing" and plastered a smile on his face, asking if they could just have dinner at the manor.

That night, Piper felt dizzy as she recalled a conversation she had with her father around fifteen years previous. She had started to grill Victor once he let it slip that Chris had opened up to him. He warned her that she wouldn't want to hear what Chris had told him, that  _he_  didn't want to hear what Chris had told him, but she wouldn't relent, so with a shaky voice, he said, "Chris told me that you died on his fourteenth birthday." Chris had been there, standing at the door listening to their watery conversation, and when Piper grabbed his hand, it was a numbing cold.

Ever since then, she looked for signs that her son knew more about his own past life than he had revealed. Chris wasn't much of a talker, but he loved nights when his parents, aunts, uncles, and cousins were all together. It didn't happen often, even though they were all a literal orb away, so everyone learned to appreciate the time they had together. That was one of the only moments pure joy could be seen on Chris's face, and it became everyone's secret mission to keep it there.

Chris's birthday fell on a Wednesday that year, so Piper called Phoebe and Paige and demanded that their families come to the manor after school and work one day for a movie night. Piper explained what her plan was, and on that Friday, when everyone was comfortable, she gestured to her sisters to do something.

"So," Paige said, feigning casualness, "this is a good movie." She earned a few shushes from her husband and oldest daughter, to which she stuck her tongue out and continued at a lower volume. "We should go to the movies one day and see something new. All of the movies we have are, like, ten years old."

Wyatt laughed quietly. "Going to the movies with fourteen people? I know an easy way to get kicked out."

"Yeah, but Aunt Paige was always a great movie partner," Chris argued easily. Piper's eyes widened slightly. Paige and Chris had never gone to the movies together, at least not in this timeline.

Paige followed along, although she was thinking exactly what Piper was. "I'm a great _everything_  partner." Chris smiled, almost nostalgically, then coughed slightly, stood up, and said he was going to get more popcorn as he walked out of the room.

After a few moments passed, Paige followed her nephew into the kitchen. She softly cleared her throat to let him know she was there. "I know what you're going to say," Chris said with his back turned to her, pretending to be focused on the popcorn in the microwave.

"You can look at me. It's not going anywhere." He slowly turned around and looked his aunt in the eyes. Paige saw the eyes of her nephew, but she knew that she was really looking at Chris Perry, the man she watched die fourteen years ago.

"How..." she started, but her voice broke with emotion and trailed off.

"I don't know. They - the memories - started out as dreams a few years ago. They were good at first, but I always woke up confused. I could tell that they were more than dreams, because I always had the feeling I had actually lived them. It wasn't like they were just really vivid dreams. It felt like I was being punched in the face with a memory I had just forgotten."

"Why didn't you tell us?"

"I don't know!" Chris ran his hands through his hair, making a few pieces stand up awkwardly. "It was something that was just - it was mine. I didn't know what I would even say to Mom, and the more I thought about it, the less I wanted to say something. She - and you guys, too - have always freaked out over every little thing involving me, and I guess that's  _because_  of the other Chris, right?" Paige guiltily shrugged and nodded. "Also, I liked the memories. I knew that you guys, out of fear, would try to figure out how to stop them if I said anything, and I didn't want that. The memories were sweet... well, until I saw Pi - my mom being killed, Wyatt killing my fiancée, and the horrible things I did to you guys when I came back."

Paige winced. "You weren't horrible. You were just... a neurotic little freak."

"My point exactly. I know I 'saved the world' and all, but I was still sort of a bad person in some ways. And I don't feel like a hero. I never did."

Paige frowned. "You... you aren't him, Chris. You've lived a different life than he did. We never blamed him for anything, so why would we blame you?" She walked towards him, leaning to open the microwave door seconds before the time went off and the annoying beeping sounded. Leaving the popcorn to sit in the microwave, she turned to her nephew. Chris sighed, protectively crossing his arms across his chest.

Paige opened her mouth to console him, but Chris gave her a this-isn't-going-to-be-a-thing look. "I can't do this right now, Aunt Paige. I don't _want_ to. They're gonna start to think something's up. It's fine," Chris insisted with a whisper. He grabbed his popcorn, shut the microwave door, and slowly walked back to the living room. "I'm fine."


End file.
